Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Execution Of John Brown



On Dec 2 , 1859, John Brown was executed for leading the raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).  One person in Brown's network of abolitionists was Dr. Alexander Ross.  See Dr. Ross's work with John Brown here.

From Dr. Ross's book:

Brown was accompanied by no ministers, he desiring no religious services either in the jail or on the scaffold.

On reaching the field where the gallows was erected, the prisoner said, " Why, are none but military allowed in the inclosure ? I am sorry citizens have been kept out." On reaching the gallows, he observed Mr. Hunter and Mayor Green standing near, to whom he said, " Gentlemen, good-by !" his voice not faltering.

Included in the Ross books is the poem, John Brown Of Osawatomie, by John Greenleaf Whittier.

A YouTube presentation from the John Brown Museum in Osawatomie, Kansas.


No comments: